First off I am a 49 yr old female in good health, I participate in 5K's & 10K's yearly. I started having Achilles problems early 2011.

I had bumped the back of my left ankle/heel area and it caused severe pain, but I just thought I hit a nerve or something.

During a cruise in Jan of 2011 I had rolled my right ankle by slipping off a step. I had it looked at when we returned and was told xrays didn't show a break or anything. In August of 2011 I went to a foot doctor because it was bothering me. I also told her about the pain in my left ankle/heel area.

She took xrays of both feet and that is when she told me I had a bone spur that was basically shredding my achilles tencon in my left foot, the right was similar, but not as bad. She said I was eventually going to need surgery to take out the bone spur and repair the achilles.

As you know there is never a good time to take off of work for something like this, so I waited as long as I could, almost 9 months.

The pain finally got so bad that it was almost unbearable to wear shoes and when you work, you unfortunately need to wear them at work. I finally made an appointment with the foot doctor in May 2012 and she said that the bone spur had broken off and surgery was needed asap!

I had surgery on June 20, 2012 and the first few days were rough due to pain like I had never felt before. She prescribed pain meds and it was much better.

I had 2 post-op checks within 2 wks of surgery and all looked good. I fell the 3rd week and put full weight on my foot and even though I had a boot on the pain was nothing like I had ever felt or want to feel again. I was out of town, called my doctor and was directed to the ER.

That doctor said all looked good, however he never once took a look at the incision, only went by the xrays. When I got home I went to see my surgeon and she took xrays and said everything was still good so she removed my stitches and wanted me to start PT.

PT started a week later and thought all was going good, but the 1st visit they told me that my incision had a small opening and wasn't closed. My exercises were still a go. The 2nd & 3rd visit it still wasn't closed. The morning of the 3rd PT visit I had a dr appt for her to see progress, that is when she removed some dead scab around the incision, but said it looked really good. Bandaid applied, went to PT and it had bled a small bit, but did PT exercises.

5th visit to PT (which was 2 days after scab removal) said it didn't look good and that it might be starting an infection. Did scar massage, but no exercises, she wanted me not to do any until she saw me on Friday.

Fridy came and it looked worse, called the nurse over from the doctors office to look at it and she said the doctor would want to see it and take a culture. Now the doctor I saw was not the one that did my surgery, but she didn't like the way it looked. Took a culture, said she thought she could see the tendon and a graft might be needed.

She said that the internal stitches seemed to be being pushed out. She said that some peoples body reject them and push them out. That could be what was keeping it from closing. She started me on Clindamycin right away and said to see my doctor on Monday.

So here we are, it is current day (Monday) and went to see my doctor. She said the full report of the culture wasn't in, but it said "gram negative" and wanted me to start taking Cipro as well as the Clindamycin and come back on Thursday to see her and get the full report of the culture.

She said that there was no sign of the tendon showing, she wasn't sure why that other doctor said that. I told her about the internal stitches pushing out and she sort of brushed it off and said that "if" they were, she would remove them. She said the wound looked good, but she said that on Monday too, not one time mentioning that it hadn't closed yet. How did she miss that? So I got the scrip filled and I have always read the side effects or precautions of any drug I take and what does Cipro say as the number 1 warning.....It causes tendon ruptures! What the heck!

Oh and the 2nd day of taking Clindamycin, not sure if it is the reason, but I have been getting very severe virtigo and with all this, no one seems to know why. I need some direction before I lose my mind and not sure where to get it.

----

Joshua Answers:

Hi Stacy.

You didn't leave your email nor check the notifications box, so I hope you find this.

I wish you the best of luck in your recovery. I read the odds of Cipro causing a rupture are 1/100,000 and that they've had 400 cases reported since 1997 (webmd). Slim odds but if there's an alternative to take that would be best given your situation. Also, my chronic Plantar Fasciitis started with a heel spur surgery (the atrophy from my "boot casts" most likely caused it) so make sure you ask your doctor ways to avoid getting it. Don't let them give you more than 3 steroid injections per year, they can also lead to rupture and more problems. This site has good advice on finding the right diet. Good luck! PS, I'm not in the medical field. I'm just a guy with some advice.

Aug 03, 2013Rating

Heel Spur surgery, 1.5 months later infection and back to the hospitalby: Deborah

I had surgery on April 29th I had a massive bone spur on back of heel but the tendon didn't have anything done to it.

But on June 11th had to go back in because infection set in had to have surgery again they left it open stuffed it with gauze its almost heeled but having severe shooting pains in my left foot and its so swollen I can barely do anything is this normal.

----

Joshua Comments:

Hi Deborah.

It's certainly not ideal, but infection happens, and having to have a second surgery happens.

That's not normal but it's not necessarily rare, either.

What is common is the lasting pain and shooting pain you describe, and inability to walk/walk a lot/etc. If surgery doesn't fix the cause of the pain, and if surgery makes things worse, then there's nothing surprising about the ongoing experience of (even debilitating) pain and problem.

Still having this month swelling ANOTHER 1.r months after the second surgery (if I did that math correctly) is NOT normal. Might be time for another visit to the doc to get some answers (and to make sure there is no infection in there still).

What self care have you been doing to reduce pain, reduce inflammation and swelling, etc?